Long before the days of email, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907) used a business card to open doors for a fellow scientist. Photograph: Public domain

Dmitri Mendeleev has an almost god-like status in the pantheon of science. Many people probably picture the creator of the earliest version of the periodic table as a bearded genius hunched over papers and textbooks.

In his native Russia, the legend is if anything even greater. There the periodic table is widely known as "The Table of Mendeleev" and his image has been immortalised in everything from stamps to statues.

Mendeleev is unquestionably on the scientific A-list, despite being famously snubbed by the Nobel prize committee in the early 1900s. But like all great figures from history, we occasionally get to see past the legend. We hear a story or glimpse an object that betrays a comforting level of normality.

In the case of Mendeleev, such a thing exists in the archives of the Royal Society in London. It is contained in this tiny, ornate envelope addressed to "Professor Thorpe" at the society's London offices. The item is postmarked from Russia in 1901.

The envelope was mailed to Thorpe by Mendeleev himself. Inside are two items so mundane they could deflate even the most starstruck chemist: two business cards.

It seems even the man who "invented" the periodic table introduced himself with a business card.

Mendeleev used his business card to introduce a scientist called Dr Duncan to Professor Thorpe at the Royal Society. Photograph:
The Periodic Table of Videos

One of the cards is in pristine condition, the chemist's name spelt the traditional "Mendeleeff". It identifies him as a retired professor from St Petersburg University and includes an address.

But Mendeleev has scrawled across and signed the second card. It seems the famous Russian sent the card to the Royal Society as a favour to a colleague named Dr Duncan.

Essentially the card has become a letter of introduction for a presumably junior scientist wishing to open doors at the hallowed Royal Society. It is easy to imagine the name Mendeleev would grease the wheels.

The card is elegant, befitting an esteemed scientist in the twilight of his career.

We have made a short film about it for our Periodic Table of Videos series. Prof Martyn Poliakoff, a British chemist with Russian ancestry, was clearly excited by it. "I think it's terrific," he says. "It's pretty much as close as we can get to Mendeleev."

Prof Poliakoff also enjoyed the evidence of interaction between the old scientists – a tangible sign of international collaboration between researchers long before email and teleconferences.

Mendeleev's business card is not the only object in the archives to humanise a famous scientist. A few weeks back I worked with Professor Poliakoff on a video about Ernest Rutherford's childhood potato masher.